Sarah Reed told family of alleged sexual assault in hospital

The prisoner on remand who died in her cell last month wrote to her family to say she had been sexually assaulted while receiving treatment at a secure mental health unit.

The Guardian has learned that Sarah Reed, 32, was charged with grievous bodily harm with intent over the incident in October after striking back at her alleged abuser. But rather than being released back into a secure hospital, she was held on remand at Holloway prison, north London, where she was found dead on 11 January.

Reed’s family, who she wrote to from jail, insist that she was acting in self defence. Campaigners have said that Reed should never have been kept in custody because of her mental health issues and experience of police brutality.

The slowly emerging details of the case have raised questions about how people with mental health problems are treated by the justice system.